Conflicts and Converts: The Wars of the Limes - AAR Thread

[ForzaA]

The history of the Archduchy of Austria

In 1492, Archduke Frederick III of Austria, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire,
felt that his end was near. But he knew that, despite his old age, he would
have to act with resolve if the Archduchy was to take it's rightfull place in
these troubled times. From Spain and Portugal, more and more reports came in of lands as yet unconquered, and if there were people there, they had not
heard of Jesus Christ. In the east, the situation was even worse, as the
Ottoman hordes, who knew of Jesus Christ, but denounced him, marched ever further on.

Despite his old age, Frederick was full of resolve, and knew what would be
expected of Austria. Let Spain and Portugal christianise these new lands,
Austria would lead the way in stemming the Ottoman tide. Diplomats were sent to Hungary to discuss an alliance, and a further general was added to the council, further weakening the voice of the admirals and merchants in
Flandern.

The Hungarians were at least as eager to stem the Ottoman tide, and in april
they invited Austrian troops to take part in an expedition to overthrow the
Ottoman puppet government in Moldavia. Meanwhile, Austrian diplomats were
busy strengthening the Austrian position in southern Germany, strengthening
ties with many of the stronger factions.

Reports were slowly coming into the country, though, that a new threat was
rising in the south. It seemed that the Doge of Venice was suffering from
megalomania, he had his troops conquer Mantua already, and now it seemed
Venetian troops stood ready to invade Milan aswell. Frederick issued a stern
warning, and hoped that that would prove enough.

Early in 1493 more disturbing news was received, it seemed that the entire
garrison in Franche-Comté had been wiped out by the French, the last survivor having died of his wounds after delivering word of the attack to Alsace.

It seemed, however, that the French operated under the assumption that this army was not Austrian, but instead an army of Lorraine. The king of France duly appologised, and offered fair compensation to Austria and the families of the victims.

Austrian spirits were lifted up even more when the Hungarians reported that
they had overthrown the Ottoman puppets in Moldavia.
The whole nation was in mourning, however, when Frederick died on the 19th of August, 1493, at the age of 77. More grieving, however, was the loss of the Imperial crown to one Kelly of Munster - a man noone seemed to know, yet in the end, he got the most votes. Reports of dark sorcery have been circulating ever since, but it seems that bishops sent to investigate mysteriously disappear.

Fredericks son, Maximilian, became the next Archduke, and he guided the
Archduchy with the same vision that his father had. Knowing that Austria's
destiny awaited in the east, and insulted by the lost election, he payed
little heed to events in Northern Germany, and when the French king
approached him concerning Artois, he sent his top diplomats, and they were
soon able to arrange a suitable outcome, France would pay a significant sum
in exchange for the liege rights to this territory.

All this time, the doge of Venice was asking, and in an increasingly
belligerent tone, that Austria cease it's objections to a Venetian takeover
in Milan. Maximilian, however, knew that he had to be steadfast, lest Austria
be seen as a pushover.

The situation in northern Germany was increasingly hostile, however, and the
Bohemians asked for Austrian assistance in driving away the Hanoverian robber barons that had conquered Würzburg. An army under Garnons was dispatched, and order was soon restored in Würzburg. It would take a few more years, and an army under another able leader, von Frundsberg, to force the Hanoverians to accept the situation.

May, 1498, saw the expected conflict in Italy burst, as Venetian troops
stormed Milanese border garrisons, and soon layed siege to Milan itself.
Strong words did not make the doge turn back, so in June, Maximilian issued
the orders, and Austrian troops overwhelmed Venetian border guards, Austrian troops soon laid sieges to Mantua, Venézia and Triest.

in March, 1499, the doge further escalated the conflict, by expelling all
Milanese nobles, and treating Milan as just a city in Venetian lands.
Maximilian could, ofcourse, not accept this situations, and sent his demands
to Venice, Milan was to be restored as an independent city. He was well aware that Venetian influence was likely to remain strong, but this was the best he could do. The doge, reluctantly, agreed.

Maximilian, it seemed, was a visionary, for the events that unfolded in 1500
showed him right. Pro-Venetian nobles in Milan were ousted, and the city
council begged him to take control of the city, to which he agreed. But the
shockwaves went further, and the doge himself fell, and was replaced.
Only when the new doge was installed, did the true horror of the reign of the
previous doge become apparent, the Venetian economy was in tatters, cities
were in revolt, the people fearing that their religion was threatened.

The next few years passed rather uneventfull, relations with Venice were
strengthened, Austrian influence in Wurtemberg increased, and relations with
France deteriorated as a result of French agression against Genoa. The
Ottoman puppet regime was ousted, and Wallachia added to Hungary. A
suspicious civil war in Hungary, no doubt instigated by Ottoman elements, was quelled.

The year is now 1513, and Austria, under the rulership of the wise Archduke,
Maximilian, has a glorious, though likely bloody, future ahead of her.

 

[Chaingun]

Die Gesichte des Österreichs, 15xx-15yy:
Aus Pracht zu Schwachsinn
(The story of Austria: From splendor to idiocy.)

In the year of our lord 15xx, the Emperor of Austria looked around himself, and saw it was all gooooood. His armies were plenty; so were his money. In fact things looked pretty bright after the previous ruler. Northern Italy had been subjected to Austrian rule and Hungary had not been lost to the untrustworthy Ottomans. Also the western inheritance of Burgundy had remained intact; quite uncommon as such if simulations of history with small variances are repeated.

Not all was perfect however for to the north laid a powerful and dangerous enemy, to history held as Brandenburg. No attempts had been made to hinder their expansion, and they were already well prepared to strike deep into central Germany. This, the emperor found scary.

The early years went pass peacefully until the emperor by accident stumbled upon his treasurer in the corridors of The Huge Splendid Modest Cultural but Full of Sin Castle Palace (TM) in Vienna. When the treasurer told they were down to half the number of ducats in the imperial coffers as a few years before, the emperor knowing he had not spent any was stunned. "How in f!/u&c#k&/ing hell did that happen?!?" he screamed while conecting his hands in a strangling grip around the treasurer's neck. "My lord! Please, don't. It's not my..." The grip got more tight. "...faaault. It's the army! Those sneaky bastards demand food to eat and high pay. Now please let o..oo...off...that..grr...grrrr..grri...errrhgh."

When the emperor walked from the corpse strangled treasurer he thought about what the man had said while alive. The army, the very pillar of the part of his power excerted by violence, was all what could ruin his empire financially. The thought was new to him indeed, and although he in this moment saw it he would ignore it later with disasterous consequences.

The decision was made to decrease the number of troops in the Imperial Army. Now, what is the best way to decrease troops if one just does not want to disband them? Kill them!!! Hence, an ambitious military campaign against the great enemy in the west was planned: France.

What would it take to invade France? Not much, apparently. In Italy 50 000 troops, mainly infantry amassed. Their objective was to take and hold the mountains in southeastern Frenchland. In the north in the low countries another 50 000 troops; these were only cavalry however, in order to be able to sweep the western farmlands leading to Paris.

Of course, until the point of war declaration the entire plan had been kept to a maximum level of secrecy. So as lightning out of the heavens strikes military access was cancelled a short time before the declaration, and then the declaration of war itself some month later. Half of the southern troops immediately passed the border without any hinderance. In the north the entire force crossed at different positions. Half of the troops formed a mobile spearhead to prevent enemy mobilization, while the other half comprised of troops dedicated to sieging enemy provinces.

At no point of this war it was even close to look like it wouldn't be a resounding success. The mobile spearhead effectively cut French recruited troops to pieces; there is no reason to believe they ever had more than 15 000 troops in the field at any point of time. Nontheless the strategy was a cautious one aimed at avoiding unpleasant surprises. For example, the two southern armies were kept in two 25 000 troop stacks, despite the fact they could have sieged three times the amount off territory they did.

The resistance effectively ended when the French king fled the country and a new king was elected to negotiate peace. Unfortunately the Austrian emissary was drunk and so the Austrian only got Lorraine + 300 ducats, when more territory could have been demanded. The war still was pure profit though as it enhanced the Austrian economy.

*I will write the negative part later. *

 

[Chaingun]

Austrian 1544-1563 AAR: How a game of nude poker can decide the fate of a nation...

(Now with a few smileys.)

Dear Loooooord!
Mainly
in-vain(ly)
war
tore
your
four
cows.

- Unknown Austrian writer called Jesus, around ca. 1560

Many of the years preceding and following 1544 are too a high degree forgotten in the mists of time because of an accidental flooding of the corresponding section of Vienna's city library. Nontheless, while looking through this gap of history Austrian historians have been able to conclude that for some years following 1544:

1. Baden and Bavaria were vassalized.
2. War with Poland resulted in a couple of provinces added to the 2.5th Reich.
3. A new Archduke ascended on the throne, known to history as Yussuf bin-Ferdinand.

Of course, as state documents after these events has been preserved they can be told, though in shame.

The emperor... sigh, archduke... bin-Ferdinand has been called so for his friendly policies towards the Ottoman Empire. When nationalists in Vienna called for a new war to wreck havoc in Europe and pointed out they had never sun-bathed in Greece before, bin-Yussuf responded by promising them a war, but not in that direction. For instead, there seemed to be oppertunities to the west and south.

It needs little explanation to say that France was a main enemy. The thought France would go to war with Brandenburg (read other volumes regarding the reasoning behind such a war) was a thought that tickled the Arch-Sheiks head. However, such an oppertune moment never came since the Frenchies demanded a guarantee of Austrian non-aggression if they ever were to engage in north German hostilities.

Of course, with the west sealed diplomatically, the remaining option was to go south to satisfy the mountain trolls lust for sun. Venice had been a long time ally or otherwise friendly country to Austria. It was just that in some years preceding the Archduke's current situation the Doge (why the hell would the Venetian leader insist to call himself a dog anyway?) had proposed a transfer of all Italian provinces (including the Genoan trade center) to Venice in exchange for 50 years of vassalship. Yussuf felt highly offended the Doge thought the sheikdom... err duchy of Austria would give away its citizens like that.

Soooo, having strong incentives for a completely illogical war on Venice bin-Ferdinand assessed the strategic nature of the problem. Venice had a huge god damn fleet. Venice was allied to friends of Austria that would instantly become enemies. It would be almost impossible to win such a war, and it would ruin much more than ever would be gained. The thought thrilled, and pleased Yussuf bin-Ferdinand very much!

The war was initied by an offensive from the Austrian Italy into eastern Venetian Italy. This army of an estimated 40 to 60 000 men was led by the Scottish prostitute Mac Enfield, a general with 6 fire skill. Troops were held in reserve in the mountains around Steirmark since the city of Venice could not be invaded with the Venetian fleet blocking all access, and a sizable army that could be used for a counter-attack was stationed there.

It's not exactly clear what happened next but after capturing Romagna or so the Austrian army was pushed back, and Mac Enfield was killed by "natural causes" when rejecting a proposition of too poor French knight who had long been away from home. o Although Romagna was continued to be held after a Venetian assault was repulsed the Spanish inquisition would soon arrive.

And the inquisition did arrive, very Spanish indeed... Sixty thousand (or less) trigger happy Spaniards landed on the shores of west Italy and immediately began to rape the cows and kill the women in the Italian countryside. The Austrians mountain trolls, seeing this it would damage their honourable moral standards if they gave up now. Hence, an all out attack on the Spaniards and their less numerous kin the Portugese were attacked, but the brave attack was repulsed. The Austrians had to retreat into the mountains of Genoa, were they after some time were defeated again and forced to flee in the direction of Milano.

The idea of retreating to Milan was not so bad if it wasn't so that the Venetians realized this would be an oppertunity to cause a total-annihilation of the Austrian army. Therefore they hurried to Milan to be able to defend the river Po when the Austrian army.

What the Venetians had not expected was that twenty thousand of hardy men and trolls from Tirols had left towards Milano some weeks earlier. They arrived before the Venetians, and a fierce battle ensued with the Venetians trying to rout bin-Ferdinand's troops before the fleeing remains of the Italy army came would catch up with them. Fortunately, they did before the reinforcements had been routed and with the arrival of 15 000 cavalry the process of killing every single Venetian was initiated.

The Venetians didn't flee because they hoped for Spanish troops to come and help them. They did... but only seven thousand delusioned Venetians remained by that time. Also, the Spaniards attempted to cross the river under heavy fire and got heavy loses before they disengaged. Now it was their turn to flee to Genoa, this time with the joint Austrian force chasing them.

However, now a point turning history would occur: The Spaniards had time to flee aboard their ships again, but, the Spanish king of sin sent out a request that a grand night at his royal luxury yacht would be held for the archduke, the Spanish king, the Portugese, and the doge.

The Spanish king had access to some fresh drugs imported from his colonies, and so a great party took place. Somewhere in the middle of the knight, the four of them started to play nude poker with some women. Now, this would not be so strange in itself, but bin-Ferdinand was exceptionally bad at this game, and quickly lost his clothes. The others now pointed out he had lost and by know had to leave the party and the half-naked women, but refuses! In his high state he said he would bet his entire French and Italian possessions next round! He did, and lost!

Thus, Spain got control over much undeserved land in Europe when the war ended. However, the government managed to stop a part of the bet and did not relinquish the French possessions for a very long time. Yussuf bin-Ferdinand was ridiculed by the populace for surrendering big without losing, and eventually he was kicked out of office (maybe).

Talk about the four cows of Europe was widespread in these times.

Later a prayer was found under an Egyptian pyramid from the anonymous poet of "Jesus". It is cited at the top of this AAR.

 

[Chaingun]

The United Austrian, Hungarian and East French State: 1563-1580

On the seventh day, the Lord created soccer and declared times of soccer holy and not to be fought upon. Thus, the very pious Austrian-Hungarian-Schwyz-East French Archduke decided not to attack West France while he had a technological advantage during the period in question.

Hence, for the early part of these years, universal peace was declared in central Europe. The peaceful time was used to strengthen the army, which despite having a technogical advantage, was too small compared to that of Western France. At the years before the outbreak of war it had reached a number of close to 120 000 men. The West French army would perhaps field a similar number, but the Austrians were confident they could beat them and reconquer more of the Empire from the evil west.

After the dream years of soccer war was declared on West France. The goal only was to take more provinces to obtain the Austrian Archduke recognition as East French Emperor. Unfortunatly, the West French army would put up stiff resistance. Austrian armies were gathered in their areas around Lorraine, and separated into mobile spearheads and assault forces. Mobile spearheads consisted of 100% cavalry to strike quickly, assault forces contained a lot of infantry to be able to assault West French fortifications. Initially most troops were grouped into assault formations but all incursions failed and a new strategy to provoke the enemies to attack would have to be devised.

The Archduke looked at his nice wall map and saw that Savoy had joined the war together with the rest of the West French alliance. Nothing special about that, but when a closer look was taken it appeared that in fact Savoy was not a vassal of France. This meant they would accept a separate peace (and annexation). The strategy from thereon was adjusted and a siege was initiated in one province Savoy.

Initially only a small force sieged. The reason was the West French forces were large in the south and it was believed they could be lured into attacking their ally's province and be annihilated if Austrian forces waited behind the province. The French did not fall into this trap, even after several attempts to outmaneuver them. Austrian forces then stopped trying and put a 70 000 men army to guard the siege instead. (The Savoyans were nice enough to provide military access to feed the troops sieging their fortress.)

Eventually Savoy fell and was enveloped into the Empire. West French forces on the north of the front had been too pussy to do anything so essentially no warscore could be credited to either side. Since the French forces was split into a north and south forces the Austrians tried to engage each of these separately but failed each time and nothing happened. The war threatened to end without further gains to East France so the Archduke needed to think hard about it.

He did come up with a plan. More cavalry would be reqruited and organized into a huge mobile spearhead. This would then engage one of the West French armies before the other one could reach it and help out. While some operational mistake were done in this plan (at first a north Austrian army was beaten back as far as Luxembourg until countering), the strategy worked. Soon the entire West French army was forced to fight a huge battle against a slightly superior enemy outside Paris which they lost.

It has to be pointed out West France was far from beaten, but after losing many troops the people wanted peace. It was given in exchange for Brabant, a Dutch catolic city that had previously belonged to the Empire but had been cowardly taken after the Brandenburg war. In fact, West French forces might have fought on and reclaimed their lands because the main Austrian general carried out a suicidal attack with 3000 men on 25 000 enemies where he was killed. It's not entirely clear why he did this, but probably he thought the West French allies were his.

The end result was the crowing of the (sigh) Archduke as ruler by God of Austria, Hungary, Schwyz and East France.

 

[Chaingun]

Austria-Hungary 1580-1603: The War for Burgundian Restoration

Austrian emperors never liked peace. In fact, peace sucks. So much, that despite all better knowledge the archenemy of France has to be invaded once every generation to satisfy the lust for blood.

This time, the goal after a period of disguisting peace was the restoration of Burgundy (of course under Habsburg rulership). It could be achieved by returning previously Austrian core territory of Flandern to the rightful owner, or by taking the province of Burgund. Both were potential goals.

War was declared (precise date is unknown) on France with preparations included moving big troop contignents to Austrian western France. The plan was to slowly conquer border provinces in the south while defending the north. Unfortunately, this would prove easier said than done.

At this time, the best Austrian leader was called "Karl" (about the 1758th leader to be named so). The bad thing was he died immediately after making an incursion in the north due to natural courses. In effect, this left the Austrian army without any leaders with more than shock 3 and fire 4. Hoaah! Great timing. These would have to encounter French leaders like the one to the Austrians known as "Heinrich" who would win every single battle of 3:4 troops disadvantage or lower.

Austrian geography in the French possessions was a bitch as well. Having the outer lines of the front with equal and periodically smaller forces than the French meant Austrian interception and reinforcement operations took longer time than corresponding French repositionings. All in all, French could siege and wait for Austrian arrival and achieve local superior unless Austrian withdrew their entire forces and marched towards the French, and which point they'd retreat and attack in the opposite direction.

Retreats were another issue. Whenever Austrians could attack in superior number French would retreat. While this massively FUBARed their warscore it costed lots of attrition to Austrian troops.

< Writing >

 

[Chaingun]

"FUBARed"....?

Making a phrase a noun and then making the noun a verb.

 

[Chaingun]

The Interpreter dude: Is that a german word ?

Nope, but I'm not sure I can say what FUBAR says in clear context without messing with board fules. Oh well here we go: F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition.

An AAR by Chaingun (presumable from 1603-1628 because OE said so ):
Dhä Änd åvdhä French0r-Aussie Vårh (Swedish-partial1337-Australian spelling of title)

1603 was a grim year. In the west, the Frenchmen had taken control of It All, including some even not so western lands such as Baden-Würtemberg. They had gained it through the use of attritive tactics and superior commanders; in addition to already fueling a greater economy than the Austrians could. Despite this, there was much optimism in the Archduchy's ranks of soldiers.

The reason simply was the French had extended themselves to a point where only a great investment into more troops could conquer them more territory, and thus more warscore. The Austrians whose internal stability could not yet be afflicted by peace offerings from the French intended to continue the fight if the enemy was not to accept a white peace. However, since the French did not share the view the war would now not be favourable to them rejected peace attempts.

War went on for a couple of years. Victory in combant fluctuated between both sides, but the Austrians conducted more sieges at once than the French, and the French refuted the idea of minting war money to finance a successful outcome. Never did any battles take place farther away than in the Tirol mountains. Surely at one point the temptation for the French to march into Steirmark and block the gold mines theres was great, but Austrian reinforcements showed up in time to stop such plans. Basically there were two fronts; one in the Swiss/Italian/Austrian/French mountains, and another one on the west French/German forests and plains. The former saw more combat than the latter which mostly saw siege operations conducted by Austrians.

The breakthrough that convinced France to sign for a while peace came in Lorraine, because a French army there attempted to retake it but failed and was annihilated. (Remark: IIRC) Clearly, war was now pointless and even the Frenchmen had to admit that. Europe was once again at peace...

Unfortunately this war had been of the worst kind when it came to social and economic effects to Austria. Technological advancement had probably been delayed a good 10-15 years at least, and it didn't end off richer in absolute terms but poorer in relative terms due to noticable inflation. To solve this problem a massive development & recovery programme was instituted that was designed to allow Austrian economy to match the French economy within a decade.

To achieve this ambitious goal land technology was advanced to 18, and then minted money was saved for many years to come. Once Austria had around 5500 ducats in treasury they were invested simultaneously in several weapons manufactories in order to prevent the massive money injection into the economy to cause a too quick increase in manufactory building prices.

(Note: The was a technical problem here that after rehost made Austria once again start at 17 land tech while several weapon manufactories were building. :rofl: Provided a simple edit by GM as listed in the main thread will solve that problem though.)

 

[Chaingun]

The Bitter War: An Account from the Habsburgs 1628-1647

The economic reforms and development programmes initiated some years earlier had started to bear fruit. Additionally, many skilled generals were available in the Austrian ranks. What could that mean? WAR!!!

A suitable target was sought after. France looked oppertune, considering it did not possess the same quality of leadership at the time. This observation also was correct. Austrian forces were gathered from all parts of the country on the French border, some 180 000 men in total (small garnisons watched the Balkans). Immediately after the war declaration a small reconaissance group of cavalry crossed the border into Champagne and saw a French army was forming in Paris.

The strategy was decided to be to destroy French forces and not attempt to conquer much terrain before the former had been accomplished. Indeed it proved successful after Austrian maneuvers put large components of both Austrian and French armies in a pitched battle outside Paris, where superior Austrian leadership led to victory. French morale was crushed after that and a quick peace in exchange for the Dutch province of Flandern was accepted from their part. Austria could have demanded a lot more as warscore already was close to 99% but other conquests were deemed unnecessary due to the strategic situation.

Obviously, such a quick and effortless war can not be called "bitter", as the title of this document suggests. And indeed, it is not the only conflict described herein. In fact the conflict referred to is one that followed rather shortly, maybe five years or so, after the French war. The Habburgs were once agained bored with peace and wanted yet another war. There were problems in deciding a target though.

Brandenburg was a natural enemy that hadn't been fought for decades, but it would seem silly to attack them without allies since they were much too strong. Additionally, this would bring little sympathy for the Austrian cause, and if possible provoke an immediate French attack, resulting in a 2-1 on Austrian that couldn't possibly be won. No, if a war was to be started, it had to interest some potentials allies as well.

That ally was found in Spain, and the enemy in England. The idea was that Austrian forces could quickly occupy English Netherlands for warscore while the Spanish and Portugese fleets would fight with the English and invade by land in North America.

Now, the big flaw in this plan of course was that it gave no guarantee whatsoever against Brandenburgish aggression (and even French aggression at times). It was established however that with Spanish and Portugese money Austrians could fight well enough in west and east of Europe to prevent a total breakdown on these fronts. It turned out to be true, because not too long after the declaration of war on England Brandenburg declared a "defensive" war on Austria and in total fielded around 300 000 men versus the 200 000 Austria was currently using to fight England with and the reserve in Hungary. Despite this massive advantage, the Austrians were actually able to hold against the massive superiority in numbers due to their army's quality.

What can be told about the operations during the war? Although there will be not attempt to cover the entire war a such it can be said that defending Austria was a constant balance between using forces in west and east. Strenghtening the western army meant weakening the eastern one and the opposite. Thus Brandenburg which had the initiaitive had the advantage of choosing where to fight and could attack where Austrian defenses were most weak. Quite a few times western front was close to collapse though thankfully Spanish troops saved the day that time.

Though it might sound impressive that Habsburg commanders were able to defend against both English and Brandenburg armies it must be noted only the Brandenburg army was a real threat on the field of battle. The English was easily dismissed in all but in one battle and thus was relegated to perform siege operations in Austrian Lowlands only.

The only really bad decision made during the war was when temporarily a huge Austrian-Spanish army chased the Brandenburgish into Pfalz. The Austrian commander made the judgement that the medium fortress there could be assaulted with the around 120 000 troops + 50 cannons available. This was a huge mistake. First off, Spanish troops were not of same quality and Austrian. Secondly, those cannons were not the fortressbuster they were hoped to be and failed to deliver the required barrage. In the end, attrition killed most Austrian and Spanish troops and the survivers were subjected to a counter-attack and crushed.

The war as of 1647 continued to be uncertain. The French joined a bit earlier and tried to invade Spain, although they were not too sucessful. They might become however; they unlike all other warring nations still had replacements in their manpower pool.

Like this the account of the Habsbugs ends.

 

[Chaingun]

Latest Austrian AAR! (and I don't know even remember for what years...

Since I don't remember much of the chronological timeline this will be less literature and more of a pure report.

Okay. There was once upon a time a cute little duchy called Austria. Then it grew to greater sizes and becamse as Big Bad Austria. After that, people make honour in attacking us.

Session started while still at war with armies of almost the entire world -OE -Russia. Although things were bad in regards to the whole, Spain in an alliance with Austria could secure white peace with France and thus seal the war's outcome to at least not be negative to Habsburgs.

After war, infra 6 could finally be reached. When it was, we built seven good manufactories, and now have a total of 14 manufactories. This is second in the world after the OE with 20. The benefits are plenty but there's still trouble to keep up in tech with rich nations such as BB.

What really could be seen this session was how twisted certain people's "balance" of power views are. Typical scenario: BB gets province X not to attack Austria. France attacks Habsburg alliance, BB says it will join France in their war on Habsburgs if French cannot have Y number of provinces. French get provinces, Austria is ready to re-DOW, may not because BB again doesn't think so. And there the soon Prussian emperor sits in the middle of medium and large forts with high tech and thinks game is "blanced".

Russian tsar in probably technically limited, for he refuses to enter any player wars. Ditto with Swedish king. The Archduke really wonders what will become of the future when two would be enemies of the dark master in the north German lands don't fight under any conditions. Also infidels in south are particulary disturbing though however peaceful, but Austria doesn't feel it's its duty to deal with those.

Enough whining about the multi-singleplay going on in this game. We shall continue to fight to prevent global boredom!

 

[Chaingun]

... cut out replies ...

Don't worry, I'm was mood to tease today. I didn't care particulary for the unbiased version. :rofl:

 

[Chaingun]

The Östrian AAR of 1669-1682

At the beginning of this period, Brandenburg immediately invaded Austria. We've argued for a long time Austria is far from as strong as people think; the following "war" just proved it, or shall we say slaughter? Anyway, Brandenburg was offered the entire of Germany but refused and settled for vassalization of Austria + Podlasia to "make the border look nicer". It was fairly dramatic even though I have described it in few words. One always feels compelled to quit a game after having taken such a beating, but it must also be remembered better times usually are ahead. In this case it certainly was true because the evil BB ruler had a ruthless plan like usual.

He wanted Austria to join operation Osmani Freedom. It was designed for his personal pleasure, yet the contents were highly advantageous for Austria. All but one fact were satisfying; the Austrians had had a peaceful relationship with the Turks for several centuries, and the Archduke was not all to keen at breaking this pact. Nevertheless, facing another BB invasion, it was agreed upon that Austrian troops would aid BB whatever help they could in the coming war.

The war itself was delayed a long time from the start. It took quite some time to maximize the countless Brandenburger army. Additionally, BB's ruler sent an angry letter to Ferdinand of Austria that he must have enhanced the fortresses on the Ottoman border beforre war could commence. Humble the Archduke replied: "But we have no money, sir!" As a result of this we obtained heavy funding by Brandenburg and eventually managed to carry out the required upgrades. Not only upgrades were carried out actually; for large stockpiles of food allowing greater numbers of fed troops were also acquired.

When the war finally broke out it proved the Turks hadn't been idle. Not only had they improved their odds militarily, but also diplomatically. It was an irony of faith when the previously outspoken enemy of the Turks, the Spaniards and Portugese, joined on the wrong side of the crusade. Even the Venetians joined them! Oh dear!

It wasn't as bad as it looked though. Like it should be known to any historian, Portugal, Spain and Venice were seafaring nations. They had specialized in fleets. This meant, their armies were not as well equipped. (I admit the historical justification for that is debatable for in EU2 in works that way.) An example of this was a battle that occurred in Piedemonte, an Italian province under Austrian siege, where 120 000 Spaniards from sea attacked 40 000 Austrians and lost. While the terrain was preferable for defense such victories wouldn't be possible against another land power.

Anyhow, like could be inferred from the previous paragraph, Austrian victories versus the navals were numerous. However, admittedly we did not fight the Ottomans at all. BB has been preoccupied with that and has had some success (measured in warscore), but on the other hand it hasn't gained much progress against the Turkish forts, because whenever the BB army advances it gets under counte rattacked by a new Turkish one. On the Austrian front however, things go well in Italy and the Balkan coast.

 

[Chaingun]

Austria 1700 - 1725

This was a session with very many fights to say the least. First it was Spain & Austria versus France (because we had automatically been thrown into an alliance due to an event anyhow). Russia which was subbed by Hose evened things out a bit by supporting France, though Sweden joined Spain and Austria for some reason so it became 3 vs 2.

The war went like this: First Spain and Austria had big initial successes against the French. However, as Russian troops amassed in the east Austria was forced to withdraw all reinforcements in that direction which meant all offensive power was reduced in the west. Also, Austria had forgot to stab hit France though warscore was at +99%. This allowed France to regain control of the situation and start to beat back the Habsburg armies and resiege its territory. The Russians didn't make any progress as such but their contribution was vital nontheless because it slowly eradicated Austrian troops (who at one point had to fight a battle such as 60 000 Austrians versus 250 000 Russians dropping in over a few weeks). No wonder a retreat was called for.

With the arrival of the permanent Russian ruler Mulliman fortunes changed however, because he like expected immediately peaced the Habsburgs and left France alone. France, which had received its first stab hit offer accepted it even though it wasn't intended to be accepted. It gained Spain three provinces in a line in eastern France; Spain had wanted Genoa and Piedmonte and wasn't all that happy. The new provinces were much more difficult to defend relatively. This was the first war.

The second war of notice Austria wasn't involved it, but it agreed to let France go in a 1 vs 1 on Spain to regain the lost provinces. It did after a year or so; everything was fine.

The third war was decidedly much more serious though, although it's not yet concluded. At the suggestion of the Dark Lord in the north Spain allied with France. I guess both were pretty tired with Austria changing allegiance in various wars but it had been to let things stay balanced. Now however, when France declared war and Spain joined, things were NOT balanced. France alone is about 1.5 stronger than Austria economically. If we count in the economy of Spain... Oh dear. The only clear advantage was that of Austrian leadership.

Initial difficulties included the deployment of troops. Most armies were in east or central Austria where they would not have much use protecting the western border or our holdings in Italy. Thus, it took nearly a year to march them to the right spots across mountains for a counteroffensive. During this time Spain landed invasion forces in Italy and captured big chunks of the country, while France captured all territory in front of the big river that runs a bit behind the Austrian-French border.

Once Austrian troops had arrived however, slaughter on enemy forces ensued. The enemies could constantly apply forces in greater quantities to any given battle, but Austrian troop quality and leadership always prevailed. Prinz Eugene ran rampaging on the border to France and at times even ventured into French territory, though a big enough army would usually show up to send him back. French Italy was captured (Genoa and Piedmonte), though the Spaniards after they got thrown out from Austrian Italy decided to prevent Austrian control of these areas for long. Either way the danger was over, and at the session's end it can be concluded we even had more manpower left than our enemies and lower war exhaustion. Quite an impressive result, even with some external funding and own minting.

Of course, we need to thank three generals for the victory. Prinz Eugene with his x-6-6 skills totally crush an enemy who dares to oppose him at equal conditions. Secondly, we had two random x-6-4 generals whose fire value helped reducing enemy troop numbers sufficiently for success. Aladar and Almighty (rulers of France and Spain) will dream nightmares of these guys.

Austria agrees to a white peace in the current war versus France and Spain.

A shadow is growing in the east (but rather north )... The power of the elfs is fading.